It took me three goes to read Lord of the Rings, and that was spaced over a number of years from about 14 to 25 years of age, oddly the third attempt took no effort at all, although I did skip most of the poetry and songs. Since then I have read it again several times and now I enjoy every bit, poetry and songs et al, I guess it's all in the timing and the temperament.
For a time in the seventies, when the mob had me billeted to a shorebase, I worked part-time as a bartender, there was a darts match being played and I noticed one chap had a regular "pattern" or "tell" as he threw his darts. Innocently enough I mentioned this to him a little later, threw him completely, he hadn't really noticed it before, presumably just fell into to it through practice, but afterwards he couldn't stop thinking about it each time, and it knackered his darts game for a long time afterwards. Some things are better left unanalysed.